If you were a dev...

Some of these, I'm sure, would generate more heat than others...

• AoEs would affect everyone in their area of effect, not just enemies. Allies, civilians, everyone. You throw an exploding ball of fire into a crowd, you're not only going to hit the people who don't like you. Need to escort someone out of a mission? If the stalker has to turn of Hide, the fire tank has to turn off his damage aura. And the Titan Weapons brute needs to watch where he swings that thing.
• Heroes should fight villains, and vice-versa. Thus, in my CoH, everyone could go everywhere, regardless of alignment. But if you were in a zone you shouldn't be in (a villain in a hero zone, for example), people who are "native" to that zone (heroes and vigilantes) could freely attack you like you were in a PvP zone. Only characters who were "allowed" to be in a zone could start fights; the interloper could fight back if and only if he or someone on his team were attacked, and only against the attacker or members of the attacker's team. Vigilantes and rogues would be considered "safe" in any zones (except PvP zones, obviously), but could only start fights in hero or villain zones, as appropriate.
  
  Being defeated by another player (not a critter) in a "wrong side" zone would send you to jail, not the hospital. At this point you could choose to bust out of your cell, or "do your time" by waiting 30 minutes (real-world minutes, not in-game minutes, so logging out would be an option).
  
  I'd remove certain features from zones on both sides to "encourage" (read: force) people to go into zones where they aren't welcome. Say, pull quartermasters from most redside zones so villains have to come to Paragon to do their shopping, and shut down Wentworth's in blueside zones so that heroes who want to trade have to visit the black market in the Isles.
  
  I'd also introduce a "secret identity" system that would allow characters to enter opposite-side zones unmolested -- an extra costume slot with vastly-reduced options (similar to Arachnos costumes, only all normal clothes) attached to a toggle power otherwise identical to Walk except that it wouldn't shut off "always on" powers or Brawl. And while it would prevent other players from being able to attack you, it wouldn't prevent critters from doing so. So if you toggle it off to use your powers to defend yourself from those Hellions that tried to mug you, you're now fair game to other players. Secret Identity would have a lockout preventing players from activating it while in the middle of a fight (maybe if you've attacked or been attacked by anything in the last sixty seconds, something like that) -- which means busting out of jail would leave you open to attack from other players again as you trashed the police station and fought your way through PPD.
• Experience debt would be applied when you're defeated, then applied again if you went to the hospital -- medical care is expensive! Being rezzed by any other means (including your SG base) would remain "free." However, debt would all be the same again, whether you're in an instanced mission or not.
• I'd apply the "giant monster code" to every enemy in a city or hazard zone. Maybe instanced missions, too, maybe not. Either way, under me there'd be no such thing as a "level 20-30 zone," only a "+0 - +2 zone" or a "-2 - +0 zone." Civilians walk around on the streets of Peregrine Island without dying -- why shouldn't a level 3 superhero be able to as well?
  
  Nothing would ever con grey, so theoretically, even stopping an Atlas Park purse-snatching would be "worth the time" for a level 50+3 incarnate.
• Tips would only drop outside of instanced missions, and would always be specific to the zone in which they dropped, not only in terms of where the mission door would be, but in the sense that certain tip missions would only be available in certain zones (so maybe a Council-based tip would only drop in zones where Council normally spawn).
• Speaking of drops, salvage would be enemy-specific. Want a Ritki Alloy? You'll only get it by fighting Rikti, and maybe Lost. Need a Mu Vestment? Find some Arachnos and take out the guys wearing them (so, Mu specifically, not crabs or widows or tarantulas). Looking for an Improvised Cybernetic? Those Freakshow over there are probably the guys to take one from.
  
  Combined with my "everyone can go everywhere" pseudo-PvP system, this could be especially interesting; maybe a villain is trying to get a specific kind of salvage by street-sweeping a type of enemy that only appears in a hero zone, and a hero shows up to thwart his nefarious scheme. ("I only need a few more rubies to build my death ray... what's that? Heroes, come to foil my plan!")
• Knockback would cause additional "falling" damage based on the distance the target was knocked back. Powers with knockback would not have their damage scaled back to compensate. Thus, powers that do knockback, and Knockback enhancements, would be much more attractive choices, and enemies would be flying all over the place.
• There'd be bigger differences between alignments, and not just in tip missions. Characters with different alignments would actually play the game differently. Heroes, being altruistic and more concerned with preventing a robbery or rescuing a kidnapped civilian, would see a larger reward at the end of each mission, but a smaller reward for defeating enemies within that mission. So clearing a map wouldn't be as good an idea as simply moving on to the next mission. Vigilantes, being more concerned with bringing the criminals to justice, would receive a smaller end-of-mission reward, but a larger reward for each enemy they defeat within the mission.

remove all enhancements except IO standard enhancements.
no TO/DO's/SO's/HO's
no set bonuses
no procs

remove EPP's and Patron Powers
remove Incarnate powers

I thought of one more:

For the next batch of Super Packs, I'd make Very Rare cards actually matter when it comes to the ATOs. Rare cards would contain the 5 normal ATOs from each set. Very Rare cards would contain the specials from each set, and ONLY the specials. No more getting a "Very Rare" that's the same thing you could have gotten from a Rare.

This thread has a lot of horrible devs in it. Zwil has one of the few palatable suggestions.

Well, since I actually *LIKE* that the game allows most characters to act like superheroes, I probably wouldn't participate in the game-killing nerf-fest. However, I probably would:

Spend 1-2 Issues solely on fixing the story. Issue 2X would fix continuity, spelling/grammar errors, and other technical problems associated with game stories. Issue 20X+1 would redo all of the early story-arcs, Hero and Villainside, to be both unique and decently well written (read: interesting). Old trials would be re-scripted so that they are similar to the new ones but able to be run with 1 team.

Delete SOs, DOs, and TOs from the game. IOs would no longer need salvage to craft, only influence/infamy/information, and would drop from levels 1 onward. They would come in 2 forms: attuned and normal. Attuned IOs would be functionally level-less, and could be made by using "Attuners", rare salvage that would also be available on the market.

Spend I2X+2 revamping the IO system. Recipes would still drop based on level range, but power-level would not be determined by the level a recipe dropped at. I would probably create a sliding scale system, with the least valuable effects stronger than the most valuable. No bonus would be less than 2.5%, except secondary defense buffs. Certain effects would be removed entirely, probably mez resistance and knockback protection (in some PvP sets).

Effects like debt protection would be as powerful as 25-50%. Certain effects, like damage, would become stronger but type-oriented. For example, Positron's Blast might give 10% damage buff, but only to energy.

A ton of new IO sets would be added, and a lot either completely revamped or removed. All sets would have 6 IOs. Purple sets would be added for almost every major type of set. Mez IO sets would probably be merged into 1 type of set, but each IO would affect every type of mez. A lot of the new sets will be based around interesting mechanics, like a set full of procs or a set will greater than purple enhancement %s but negative set bonuses (or the opposite, a set with incredible set bonuses but worthless enhancements). Other new options could include side-specific IOs, level-focused IOs whose set bonuses worked best in a certain level range (ie 20-40 range), origin-enhanced IOs, etc.

I2X+3 would be powerset rebalancing, focusing entirely on "underperforming sets". Most of these are legacy sets that were badly designed, and need serious breakage of the cottage rule. This would include the introduction of new mechanics (like Gravity), giving underused powers the Clobber treatment, giving alternate animations for powers with very low DPAs or long animations (ex: Barb Swipe). All of the blaster secondaries will receive a serious looking at.

I would mostly forget about the new story arcs, and return to the game's roots. This would mean a lot of new stories about Vahzilok, Clockwork, Outcasts, Trolls, and other lesser used groups in the mid-low levels. These groups would receive new units, costumes, and backstory where appropriate to make them interesting enough to merit new story-arcs. Same for higher levels, mostly focusing on making legacy groups more interesting rather than adding new groups.

I'd also do pretty major revamps of legacy zones such as Boomtown, Perez Park, and others, making some Villain-exclusive. Most major would be the Shadow Shard, which would be the end-game zone. Tons of new story, enemy types, and QoL improvements for the Shadow Shard.

hate to say bill, but i think a good portion of your list should be in the suggestion forum. love the quiz part. and the aoe one, and especially the origin story one.

as for me, people complain about city of manga...they haven't seen city of manga till i destory paragon city, move everything to the new hub of superheroic activity, neo-tokyo(or some thing that wont get me sued by an existing anime) and so on from there.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

* Kill PvP. It stays as it is, but officially no future development, design, or work will be done for it.
* Lower the defense hard-cap, say to around 30%.
* Separate Ouro into Hero, Vigilante, Rogue, and Villain versions. Just to screw with people.
* Scrap AE and co-op missions/zones.

Co-op the entire game and allow world map PvP.

Get rid of XP and Inf in the AE; get rid of the Ticket cap and allow tickets to be traded in for Inf and XP (as well as the other stuff).

Gate each iSlot behind an iTrial. Finishing a Trial gets you the respective slot and the iXP percentage determines the percentage of effect the slot has on whatever is equipped in it.

Probably just about any changes would promote nerd rage from some quarter.

The only power change I'd institute (that I can think of ATM) would be to take all Kheldian ranged attacks and make them deal kb, while all Kheldian melee attacks would deal kd. That seems reasonable and obvious to me, but no doubt someone would have a cow.

But the change I've been longing to make as a dev - lo these many years - is to completely re-write the content, getting rid of the notion of a 1-50 timeline (which IMO fails miserably, due to teaming and multiple other factors). Instead, content would be gated behind souvenirs. The existence of one souvenir would unlock one or more arcs based on the events in that story chain. And if you join with a player on an arc and complete the final mission, you'd have the option to take the souvenir for it, thereby advancing your own position within the story.

I would also try to make the stories sensible and lore filled, instead of having most of the game lore occur in the background, hidden in clue texts, and having players wondering "WTH just happened?" So if there is a bit of lore in the game, like the Backwoodsman explore badge, there will be a story that relates to it, and the fates of characters like Inglebert Maahs and Starlight will be shown in missions.

Cutscenes would be common, but mercifully brief, taking no longer than a typical loading screen, or as a still shot used as a loading screen. They would occur only at the beginning or ending of a mission, or when a clue is obtained in an out-of-combat state. They would NOT be filled with lengthy exchanges of dialog, nor would they be used in content intended for frequent repetition.

There would be content on blueside for all five origins. Players would be given the opportunity to play a new set of content each time they select a new origin, but they would not be locked into it.

Redside content would be re-written and expanded as well, with different content paths, but not based upon origin. Instead, there would probably be some arc paths that would cater to certain types of villain psychology, which players could choose if they wished.

Missions for players would be on both sides; that is, heroes would have access to a copy of redside zone maps, and villains would have access to copies of blueside maps. So as a villain you could travel to Paragon, and risk being attacked by Longbow, Hero Corps, or miscellaneous NPC heroes as you travel to and from missions in these new hazard zones.

Contacts would not be in open zones, but concealed on instanced maps. This way you and your team visit the contact in relation to the current arc, and in a setting related to that story, without other unrelated players buzzing around.

There would be no silly errand missions. Players would get and use contact cellphones from the start, except when a visit to the contact is dictated for story purposes.

Many contacts that offer task forces would offer more than one, as Positron does. Players would get the accolade for completing any of the task forces from that contact, and a separate badge for each task force.

Phasing tech would be used in the current hazard zones to show the player's progression in the story.

Force you rp walk everywhere.

I thought of another:

Origin would matter. Not to you as the player, but to the enemies. Certain groups would be more apt to attack players of certain origins -- in other words, each origin would generate more threat than normal against some enemy groups. Hellions would be more aggressive against magic-origin characters, hoping to recover an artifact or tome from them. Primal Clockwork, constantly searching for metal, would be much more eager to take it from technology-origin characters. Warriors would seek to challenge natural-origin characters. And so on.

EDIT: And! AND!!! If they defeat you, they'd actually TAKE salvage from you. Something appropriate -- Hellions would take something arcane, for example.

So for example, a team with a magic tank and a science blaster might find fighting Crey (whose scientific curiosity would provide them a threat bonus against science characters) a little more complicated than other groups, as the blaster's origin might cause him to outstrip the tank's ability to hold aggro more often than he otherwise would.

I'd change the game into a 2D side scroller then introduce the new power in the Paragon Market:

Move Left 400 PP
Allows you to move to the left

Create minimal combat role-playing story arcs that advance the world's overall plot (probably utilizing several of Bill's suggestions).

Link access to end-game content to possession of the appropriate RP souvenirs.

Gate all future drops of purples and ATOs behind successful completion of these role-playing arcs.